Best Southern Style Food in Music City

   I grew up in a part of the country that considered the meat-n-three a form of elevated cuisine. My tiny hometown prided itself on the fact that every single restaurant in town (including the Tastee Freeze) served up some form of the meat-n-three. However, at the time I did not fully appreciate the rich tradition and fine Southern cooking that these establishments provided.
  Part of the allure of going away to college in the early seventies was my desire to experience a more urban lifestyle. Therefore, I was attracted to a campus that was fully integrated into a burgeoning metropolitan area. Imagine my surprise when as a freshman my newly acquired college friends began raving about a place away from campus where you could get the most unbelievable food. After much conversation accompanied by a growing dislike of dorm food, we finally piled willy nilly into some commandeered automobiles and made the trek out to this much talked about place. I should have known something was up when we soon left the lights of the city and drove for what seemed an interminable length of time. As soon as we pulled in, I immediately recognized the restaurant. My first dining experience out in Nashville, Tennessee, and I am suddenly back in the land of the meat-n-three. Oh, the irony.
   Now all roads happily lead to home. In the intervening years I have enjoyed many a great meal at this establishment and enthusiastically recommend it to all comers to Nashville. It is an iconic eatery and serves some of the best Southern food on the planet. And what is this place? Why, it's none other than the nationally renown Loveless Restaurant.

And no, it's not a motel. It used to be. A long, long time ago. 

The restaurant folks just kept the sign because it was retro before retro was in.

   Don't be fooled by this seemingly small and unassuming exterior. Just roll down your car window when you pull into the parking lot and breathe deeply. The smell of all that fine Southern cooking is your first clue that it's gonna be good. Real good.
   Here are some things you need to know before you go: 1) Call ahead for a reservation, if possible or you are going to have a good long wait. 2) No matter what time you eat, you will not be eating dinner...you will be eating supper. It's a Southern thing. 3) Biscuits are served with butter, preserves, honey and sorghum. If you don't know what sorghum is, look it up. 4) Loveless actually serves moonshine (it's legal now), but the best thing to aid with your digestion is to finish off your meal with a little Whisper Creek Tennessee Sipping Cream. Finally, 5) Forget the diet and go ahead and order the fried chicken. If you don't, you are gonna need to have your head examined. Immediately. It's also probably some kind of sin.

This photo of Loveless Cafe is courtesy of TripAdvisor

 My family always eats family style because that's the only way to go in my book. I am really not a fried chicken aficionado so I spend most of my meal savoring the unbelievable biscuits slathered with butter and peach preserves. I also eat my fill of the sides.

This photo of Loveless Cafe is courtesy of TripAdvisor

My friend Carol Fay was the famous Biscuit Lady of Loveless. We have a family connection with her that runs pretty deep. She helped me raise my children and keep my house. I just didn't know then that she was gonna be so famous or I would have gotten her to teach me how to make those biscuits.

This photo of Loveless Cafe is courtesy of TripAdvisor

This is the wall of fame. Everybody who is anybody has eaten at Loveless', and chances are pretty good that you are sitting next to someone who is famous. But in Nashville, we don't act like we recognize them because a lot of the time we don't. So we pretty much leave everybody alone. 

Even if it's Brad Paisley and his beautiful wife and their cute two little boys.

This photo of Loveless Cafe is courtesy of TripAdvisor

So if you want an authentic version of Southern cooking that hasn't changed much over
the past sixty years you need to pay Loveless' a visit.
As I said before, it's some of the best Southern food on the planet.
Can I get an Amen?!

Hoecakes or Cornbread Patties, Either Way A Bite of Heaven

  If you know what this is...you win a prize. You are more than likely a tried and true Southerner or you have been here so long you can almost lay claim to the title. This, my friends who are not from the Deep South, is a hoe cake. Don't get the wrong idea, this is not another version of the word for a loose woman, this is a h-o-e cake, as in a hoe, an implement used to dig a row in a field. Also known as a cornbread pattie. Yet another synonym for these little cakes is the word delicious. I am smacking my lips just thinking of eating one hot out of my grandmother's iron skillet.

   Growing up in the summers at the Big House on Cinco Bayou, we would line up at the back door of the kitchen as soon as the word spread that my grandmother Lou Lou was frying up a batch of these beauties. I have watched her make them what seems like a hundred times, but mine have never ever tasted the same. For one thing, I am not eight years old and standing on the back stoop in my bathing suit, dripping wet, and waiting not so patiently for the taste of that fried cornbread smeared with a little butter. It's just so lip-smacking good. Crispy on the outside and moist and chewy like only soft cornbread can be on the inside.
   The Baby Sister is working on the recipe. I drove over one night the time before last when I was home to taste hers. They were good. But I wasn't eight years and dripping wet at the back door standing in a line of cousins waiting for my turn...you get my drift.
   I have a recipe I am happy to share with you novices who have never heard of a hoe cake or cornbread pattie, much less eaten one. However, no matter how hard you try, you will not likely be able to replicate a true hot fried cornbread experience. That, my friend, is reserved for but a few.
   But you can try.

Keep in mind that this is not an exact science.

1. You will need a cast iron skillet. If you don't have one, you better not try this recipe. There is something about the seasoning in the skillet, the depth of the skillet, and the uniformity of the heat that the cast iron produces that are essential for success.

2. You will need bacon grease. Yes m'am. Crisco alone will not do. Nor will any canola or vegetable oil, or heaven forbid, extra virgin olive oil. You might be able to mix some bacon grease with the aforementioned substitutes, but you must have some bona fide form of lard and Crisco alone does not suffice.

3. You will need cornmeal. Real cornmeal ground in a local grist mill is best, but most of you have no idea what I am talking about. Go ahead and buy your Aunt Jemima if you must, but if you can get your hands on some local yellow or white corn meal, do it. It will be ten times better, trust me.

3. White Lily self-rising flour. You will only need a couple of tablespoons, but it is an important ingredient. White Lily is only acceptable brand left other than Martha White for a tried and true Southerner. Neither of these girls will let you down.

4. Real butter. No fake and bake here. Unsalted or salted. Whatever, just make sure it is butter. That's B-U-T-T-er.

Now for some accompaniments.

Buttermilk. Pretty soon you won't be able to buy this in the grocery stores. I am already seeing a dearth of it up here in the upper South. My dear grandmother would roll over in the grave. She loved this stuff and so does my Momma. Momma used to drink a big glass every night just before bed. Truth be told, I don't care much for the stuff, but if you are gonna have a true Southerner experience, you need to have some buttermilk and cornbread. Real aficionados will dip their hot cornbread in their buttermilk or crumble it up in their glass.

Peas. You need a mess of field peas. Not crowders. Little tiny green and white field peas. Hoecakes or cornbread patties go best with peas and a little pot likker, washed down with a tall glass of cold buttermilk.

Now for the recipe:
Bacon Grease
Cornmeal about 2 cups
2 Tablespoons of self-rising flour
Hot water
Salt
(Some people put an egg in theirs, but I see no need. However, you can add an egg if you want.)

Melt your bacon grease in your cast iron skillet. You want a thin layer of bacon grease, just enough to come up about halfway on your cornbread patties, but not completely submerge them. The hoecakes are fried, but not deep fried.

Mix your 2 cups of cornmeal together with the two Tablespoons of self-rising flour. Add salt. Take your fork and stir it up thoroughly. Next heat up two cups of water in the microwave until just about boiling and pour it into your mixture in increments. You will want your hoecake mixture to be about the consistency of a thick paste. Next up are your hands. Yep, you are gonna have to get messy with this recipe. Using your hands, form little patties and immediately start sliding them into the hot grease. Work quickly. If your dough gets too stiff, add a little water. Do not let the patties touch. Your grease should not be so hot that it is smoking, but it should be hot enough to immediately begin frying the cakes. You will only turn the hoecakes ONCE. Wait to turn them until the sides begin to turn brown. Look at the picture above again to help you gauge this. Remove, drain on paper towels, butter them with softened butter and start handing them out to whomever is in the kitchen. Best if eaten immediately.

If your first batch is a little greasy, either remove some of the grease or turn your heat up.

Obviously making cornbread patties is a trial and error experience. That's the way most Southerners like it. It's not an exact science. But then again, most of what we do down here is not an exact science. You cook with your heart and your taste buds. And you eat in community. Hoecakes are the ultimate in community food because they are not much good when they are cold. So make sure there's a crowd in the kitchen or outside on the stoop when you start cooking these beauties.

           Here are some of the cousins at about the age when we were lining up at the back door, jockeying for whom would get the first cornbread pattie. In case you are at a loss to identify yours truly, I am the one on the far left. My other grandmother made my bathing suit, and I really loved that pom pom trim.
          And this is a picture of the Big House. It was the Big House because there is a tiny little house that sits behind it that you cannot see (not to be confused with the pump house on the far right). Calling it the Big House might be a misnomer to some, but it certainly looms larger than life itself in the canon of my memory.

The beloved Big House, Yacht Club Drive, Cinco Bayou

    If you get adventurous and decide to give the fried cornbread patties a try, let me know how they turn out.

The Sweetest Southern Shower

   Ahhh love, sweet love.
The joy between a man and his maid is always to be celebrated.
And we Southerners do Bridal Showers with such graciousness, style, and panache.
Creating a beautiful environment in which to fete the Bride is expected.
Having made that clear, I want to go on record saying that this Bridal Shower has to be
one of the prettiest parties I have ever seen.
Take a look and decide for yourself...

Layers and layers of lovelies....

Linens. Lace. Antique china. Silver.

Everywhere you turned, there were special touches

Little cards where you could write your dreams and desires for the bride and groom.

Tables were laden with lovely food and adorned with beautiful flowers

Tiny cookies in the shape of engagement rings paired with

iced wedding dresses and the palest of pink hearts

A cake to die for

A joy-filled day to celebrate the sweet love between a very special Bride and Groom,

this lovely party is one to long remember...

Sip and See for Little Three

    If you are from the South, you have quite possibly heard of a "Sip and See."  This long-standing mostly Southern tradition has morphed into something with a different twist in modern times. In my day, the Sip and See was held in the home of the Bride in the weeks before the wedding so that folks could come and view the wedding gifts in advance of the big day. Now, you most often receive an invitation to a Sip and See to meet a newly arrived little person.
   Some dear friends of ours did just that for Little Three. Friends and family recently gathered on a delightful Sunday afternoon with warm sunshine and a definite hint of fall in the air. To say that the  hostess has a beautiful house is an understatement. Her home is literally layered with beauty. Her taste combines a few contemporary touches with more traditional in a delightful eclectic way that serves to make folks feel right at home. It is lovely but not pretentious. You feel the warmth and the comfort the minute you step in the door. As my daughter-in-law said, "I could just pack a toothbrush and move in."
    The hostesses wisely kept the party simple. Champagne in the cutest little containers you have ever seen. Tiny baby-sized cupcakes from Nashville's vaunted Cupcake Collection. Traditional lemonade and pink lemonade along with coffee, and tea. Perfect. Lovely. Delightful. Need I say more?

 And here's the little man doing what he does best...sleeping through it all. 

It will be a gift that will serve him well in life!

Hostesses with The Daughter and The Mom!

My three girls!

Just Peachy Keen

   Time's a wastin'. The peaches' days are numbered. You better get to your favorite Farmer's Market and pick a peck soon if you know what's good for you. I personally love to make my favorite fresh cobbler with fresh peaches, but there are a plethora of options for you if a Southern cobbler dripping with peach goodness is not your thing.
    Here's a beautiful little peach treasure for you to try. It's not a cobbler, but it's the next best thing. Sorry, I just could not resist. Oh, and did I mention that it is gluten-free?!

Here she is -- The White Peach Tartelette with Rosemary Sugar

http://www.tarteletteblog.com/2011/06/recipe-gluten-free-white-peach.html

Ya'll know how much we love our bacon down here, so this one's a no-brainer.

These Pancetta-Wrapped Peaches may have only four ingredients, 

but they pack a powerhouse of flavor. 

Find the recipe at Yumsugar.com

The folks at Southern Living almost always get it right. Take a look at this deliciousness.

Grilled Peach and Mozarella Salad

And this one will keep you in the peaches, long after the season has passed.

Canned Peach Salsa. Good on fish and chips!

http://www.home-ec101.com/peach-salsa/

And since we are all in the British mode with the Olympic fest going on, why

not give a little air-play to our ex-pat Gwyneth Paltrow and her

Peach Cooler. Originally published in Bon Appetit, this is her take on the

classic British drink, a Pimm's Cup.

http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/06/peach-cooler

Supposedly this recipe won best side dish in the South Carolina Annual Peach-Off Contest.

Spiced Peach Carrot Bread

The recipe can be found here.

And since we are all about sippin' something cold in the South,
why not wash it all down with a little sip of this?

It's a Whiskey Peach Smash. Find it here.

Now if you happen to be the one doin' the cooking,
you might want to play it safe and only have one Smash.
I think you know why.